Upon my arrival, I realized that the fantastic reports that I heard about my school were not only accurate, but even understated. I simply could not have asked for a better environment and system to walk into. My cooperating teacher is very experienced and innovative and passionate towards teaching. Her curriculum is challenging, yet fair, and her methods are effective because they perfectly accommodate the needs of special situations she faces in her school and classroom.
Realizing all of this, I discovered a new dilemma before my eyes. How would I be able to live up to the students' expectations in such a successful system? The answer came quickly and easily from my teacher herself. She told me: " . . .just be yourself and try anything you want to try; don't even think twice about what I would do."
Let me tell you, getting this kind of freedom from an exceptional teacher was a real boost to my confidence. From that first conversation on, we were able to work together with absolutely no problems whatsoever.
Maybe our excellent relationship is an exception to the rule, but this experience has really been the most beneficial and exciting part of my upper-level education. I could not have asked for a greater person to work with or better preparation for giving me one of the greatest learning experiences of my life.
If we want to grow in practice, we have two primary places to go: to the inner ground from which good teaching comes and to the community of fellow teachers from whom we can learn more about ourselves and our craft (Parker Palmer, 1998, p. 141 )
It was a hectic day but I enjoyed it. I attended St. John's Primary at Auburn. It is a multicultural school. In my class, There are 16 students in total and all of them have special needs. 7 of them are from Sudan, 1 from Nigeria, 1 Chinese, 1 from Australia, 1 from New zealand and 5 from Tonga Island. I found the pracs very engaging and highly interesting. They are year 5 students, but all of them are working at stage 2 level in class with all the KLA's particularly English. most of them have behavioural problems and thus my teacher uses different classroom management strategies. I found out that she was a fredric Jones folllower and how she has incorporated his model in her class. On first day, I wasn't aware of who Fred Jones is? I came back home and then found out a few strategies that Fred Jones describes for classroom management. And I believe that his strategies really work in class as I have seen in my own class. And they are fairly simple to apply. He particularly talks of Teacher's attitude, body language, incentive systems, providing efficient help etc. I had a really good time as a whole.
